The man who tried to assassinate US president Ronald Reagan will be allowed to leave a Washington mental hospital to live in the community.

John Hinckley Jr will be allowed to live full-time at his mother's home in Virginia after a ruling by Judge Paul L Friedman.

The ruling that Hinckley is ready to live in the community comes more than 35 years after the March 30 1981 shooting outside a Washington hotel in which then-president Reagan and three others were injured.

Doctors have said for years that the now 61-year-old Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting, is no longer plagued by the mental illness that drove him to shoot Mr Reagan.

For more than a year he has been allowed to spend 17 days a month at his mother's home where he will now live full-time.